Leaders meet to ease Sino-Japanese tensions
The leaders of Japan and China today met in an effort to end a dispute over Japan’s Second World War aggression that has badly damaged relations between the two Asian powers and alarmed their neighbours.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao smiled and shook hands before sitting down to begin the talks, which were closed to the media.
The meeting lasted 55 minutes. Koizumi told reporters it was a “very good meeting”, as he left the Indonesian venue.
It was the first top-level discussion since massive anti-Japanese protests erupted earlier this month in major Chinese cities over Tokyo’s approval of school textbooks that China claims play down wartime atrocities.
It came a day after Koizumi offered the most public apology in a decade over Japan’s wartime aggression in Asia.
Koizumi’s expression of “deep remorse” broke no new ground, but the rare appeal was a clear attempt to reverse the worst erosion of ties between Tokyo and Beijing since diplomatic relations were established in 1972.
Today’s meeting took place on the sidelines of a summit for Asian and African leaders in Jakarta.
